A lady’s maid named Hartley is struggling to find work after a bad case of typhoid that put her in the hospital for three months. Still “weak and tottery,” she finds herself unable to convince employers to take her on, and, to make matters worse, she is running out of money. Just when she is about to give up hope of ever finding work again, she meets Mrs. Railton, a friend of a former employer, who offers her a position with Mrs. Railton’s niece. Grateful to have found some work at last, Hartley accepts the job, despite Mrs. Railton’s admission that Brympton, the house where Hartley will be working, is a gloomy place owned by a domineering and mean-spirited man, Mr. Brympton.
When she arrives at Brympton Place, Hartley finds that it is indeed a bleak place; nevertheless, her fondness for her mistress, Mrs. Brympton, outweighs the unsettled feeling she gets from being in the house. Hartley gets into the rhythm of life at Brympton Place and finds ways to keep her spirits up, even if the gloomy atmosphere and Mr. Brympton’s boorish behavior threaten to cast a pall over her life. The house is not just gloomy, however; it is also full of secrets. Hartley wonders about the exact nature of the relationship between Mrs. Brympton and the Brymptons’ neighbor, Mr. Ranford, and why none of the other servants seem willing to talk about the room across the hall from hers or its former occupant, Emma Saxon.
The mystery across the hall becomes more sinister when Hartley is awoken one night by the ringing of the lady’s maid’s bell—which Mrs. Brympton has assured her she never uses. Hartley is certain that she hears the door across the hall open and close and footsteps in the hall, even though the room is clearly unoccupied. As Mrs. Brympton’s health begins to worsen, Hartley begins to suspect that the house is haunted by a ghost—a suspicion that is confirmed one day when the ghost of Mrs. Brympton’s former lady’s maid, Emma Saxon, appears at her side.
Hartley follows the ghost to Mr. Ranford’s house but is unable to decipher the ghost’s message: while she is certain that the ghost wants her to do something for Mrs. Brympton, it is unclear to Hartley what she must do. Shaken, she returns home to Brympton Place and does her best to carry on with her work. That night she is awoken by the bell again, this time with the certainty that, whatever the ghost’s appearance forebodes, “It is going to happen now.” Hartley knocks on Mrs. Brympton’s door and finds her mistress fully dressed, despite the late hour. At the sound of footsteps downstairs—a sign that Mr. Brympton has arrived home unexpectedly—Mrs. Brympton loses consciousness and falls to the floor. Mr. Brympton enters the room and disregards his unconscious wife, seemingly more interested in whatever is hidden in his wife’s boudoir. He opens the door and, seeing the ghost of Emma Saxon, shrinks back. On the brink of death, Mrs. Brympton fixes one final look of accusation on Mr. Brympton and then passes away.
Mrs. Brympton’s funeral is held three days later, in the middle of a snowstorm. Throughout the funeral, Mr. Brympton stares daggers at Mr. Ranford, who, mysteriously, now walks with a cane. Mr. Brympton leaves the funeral before it has even concluded, leaving the servants to return home to Brympton Place alone.
